WE DID IT!!

[screamneagle]

The news finally came. At 5:06 a.m. this morning my fiance sent me a text with the news that she had finally received the visas for both her and her daughter. Talk about excited! Out of all the people standing in line for her interview at GUZ on August 24th, she and her daughter were virtually the last ones called to the interview window. I waited for 4 hours down in the coffee shop with some other American men. One by one they peeled away as their ladies came down from the 5th floor with their pink papers. Finally, I was the last man standing, wondering if the long wait was a good sign or a bad sign. At 12:15 my fiancee and her daughter came down from Mount Olympus with smiles on their face. My eyes scanned in vain as I looked for some sign of a pink paper ... but nowhere was it to bee seen! I suddenly saw my fiancee holding a white piece of paper and my heart fell out through my lower parts! So why were they smiling? The whole place had pretty much cleared out by the time my fiancee and her daughter came down but I still had to shoo the lurking sharks away that were trying to sell us airline tickets, EMS labels, lawyers and what have you.

 

I asked my financee what had happened and she showed me her white piece of paper. I was immediately relieved to see it was not a rejection notice but rather a "call-in" letter. She told me that the visa official had told them that they had passed the interview but that they could not issue the visa until we had a notarized book for her daughter's unmarried status! This was news to me. When had every document they called for in the P4 letter plus another 40 pounds of documents, papers, photos and proof, proof proof galore! They told my fiance that as soon as she brought the unmarried statement in for her daughter, they would issue the visas. I should interject here that we stayed with the Yangs at the Tian Yi Garden appartments and that we paid Mr. Yang 1000RMB to act as our Power of Attorney. He was absolutely great. He took us for our medical exams, helped us with our documents and was "Johnny on the Spot" for all our questions and small concerns. Mrs. Yang help reorganize our documents into the 4 folder system, when over our documents again and went through our photos. She spoke English very well and was very helpful. I highly recommend staying with them at the Tian Yi Gardens Apartments as the service and assistance that they provided to us was priceless!

 

We were on the plane back to Chengdu within hours of the end of the interview on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we were standing on the doorstep of the Notary office in Chengdu where they made 2 copies of the 2 notarized books that we needed. One was the un married statement booklet and the other was a statement from my fiance authorizing Mr. Yang to act as her Power of Attorney. The price was 600RMB for the documents and 12RMB for the EMS shipping. The EMS mailman came to the notary office and we shipped both my fiancee's and her daughter's passports along with the 2 notarized statement books back to Mr. Yang in Guangzhou. Mr. Yang brought the notarized statements back to the consulate the following week. We had already made provisions to have the consulate mail the visas to Mr. Yang. He received them this past Monday, September 6th (no Labor Day holiday in China ... post offices are open). Mr. Yang forwarded them to my fiancee and she received them today!

 

Some observations that may be helpful to others...

 

The whole process was exactly as out lined on this wonderful website time and time again. The only surprise was the revelation of the un married statement for my fiancee's daughter. So be aware ... if your lady has a daughter over the age of 20 years she will definitely need a notarized un married statement.

 

When I went to the ACH on the Monday proceeding our interview, I asked if the Letter of Evolution needed to be notarized. The answer was, "No". I asked if the letter from my financial institution needed to be notarized. The answer was, "No". I asked how much it cost to notarize a document and was floored by the reply, "$50.00". So gentlemen, be forewarned ... the cost of notarizing at the consulate is no longer $30. It is $50.00! Do it at home!

 

My fiance told me that she got a seat in the front row and close to the interview windows. She was able to overhear some of the questions that were being asked to the other ladies at the windows. This helped her self confidence as we had been practicing this aspect of the interview for months on skype and for 6 days face to face prior to the interview. She was "dead on" with all her answers.

 

 

The visa official only asked the following questions:

 

 

How Many Times has he been to see you?

Is he here with you today?

May I see his passport?

May I see your chat logs?

Is this your daughter?

Do you have an un married certificate for her?

May I see your photos?

How do you communicate?

 

To test her English ability, the visa official pulled out a random letter I had written to my fiancee from our files and asked her to read it. After reading the first 3 lines she said, "OK, Congratulations, you pass."

 

We had 5 books of about 30 photos each. The visa official only looked at one book.

 

Didn't look at any financial documents other than the last 3 years of income tax transcripts.

 

My fiancee said that the visa official was an "American woman with a big body who was very pleasant, courteous and smiled a lot."

 

So, needless to say ... we are now on Cloud 9 with her arrival date set for October 18th. I would like to extend a heart felt "THANK YOU" to all who helped guide us through this entire procedure from the very first step. I truly could not have done this without you and this fantastic website.

 

Next stop ....AOS!

 

B

[david_dawei]

Questions:

1. Why do you think they asked to see chat logs? (Did you submit some with the original I-129F?)

2. What was this 'random letter', a chat log?

 

thanks for the info and congratulations!

[warpedbored]

You mentioned daughter is 20. You need to get her AOS papers filed ASAP.If she turns 21 before the AOS is complete she may have to go back to China

[Stepbrow]

:cheering: Congratulations :cheering:

[screamneagle]

Questions:

1. Why do you think they asked to see chat logs? (Did you submit some with the original I-129F?)

2. What was this 'random letter', a chat log?

 

thanks for the info and congratulations!

 

1. I sent in a ton of chat logs with my original I-129F in April of this year. These were from January 2009 to April 2010. The chat logs I included in the "Proof of Relationship" folder for the interview were chat logs from April 2010( from when I sent in the initial filing of the I-129F) up to 2 weeks before the interview. I am sure that that they wanted to make sure that we still spoke online everyday and the relationship was still going strong (which it is).

 

2. The letter the visa official pulled from the file was a letter translated through the dating service translator assigned to our relationship. I have met this young girl and continue to see her in person when I am in Chengdu. She has become our very good friend and we often go out on double dates together with her and her fiancee. The letter was not part of any chat session but rather a formally composed letter which we usually sent back and forth 2 to 3 times a week in addition to our chats. Whenever I wanted to be absolutely sure that my fiancee understood something of importance that she and I spoke about in any given chat session, I would send a letter through the translator. My lady would confirm or address what I had said in the letter and I would know that we were on the same page.

 

Thank you for your best wishes!

[Ryan H]

Congratulations and thanks for the information!

[screamneagle]

You mentioned daughter is 20. You need to get her AOS papers filed ASAP.If she turns 21 before the AOS is complete she may have to go back to China

 

She just turned 20 years old in July (her birthday and my 2 daughters, who are 7 years apart in age, all have their birthdays on the same day! How's that for destiny?!!). In any event, I will be working on the AOS as soon as they arrive next month. Thanks for the heads up!

[Lee VD]

I am amazed they gave you a call in letter rather than a blue slip. I thought when a document is needed you have to send it in and then WAIT 3-6 weeks for a call in letter. This seems new to me and would be unusually intelligent for them to start doing this.

The power of attorney thing with Mr. Wang is a great idea! I guess that's what you have to do to get a passport down there and mailed back? Pay someone to be your agent?

[Randy W]

I am amazed they gave you a call in letter rather than a blue slip. I thought when a document is needed you have to send it in and then WAIT 3-6 weeks for a call in letter. This seems new to me and would be unusually intelligent for them to start doing this.

The power of attorney thing with Mr. Wang is a great idea! I guess that's what you have to do to get a passport down there and mailed back? Pay someone to be your agent?

 

 

I believe the power of attorney thing was so that the Wang's could turn in the unmarried statement for their daughter and then (the Wang's) arrange for the passports to be mailed to them.

 

Otherwise, you can simply arrange to have the consulate mail the passports directly to the Wang's without the power of attorney (since you are making those arrangements yourself) - at the time of the interview

 

But, yes, anytime someone interacts with the consulate on your behalf, they would need the power of attorney

Edited September 11, 2010 by Randy W (see edit history)

[whatsthedeal]

Congrats!

[Lee VD]

Ok, so is this right?

 

So we are just waiting for the call back letter now.

My gal has a friend in GZ, so she needs to go to a notary and get a power of attorney notarized (any standard text for this?)? Then send to her friend the call in letter, passport, power of attorney, a filled out EMS label (for the return of passport to Shanghai which is an eligible city), and a little cash for postage... Then her friend can take the passport in to the consulate?

 

Anything I missed?

[shadeOgray]

Grats!

[Randy W]

Ok, so is this right?

 

So we are just waiting for the call back letter now.

My gal has a friend in GZ, so she needs to go to a notary and get a power of attorney notarized (any standard text for this?)? Then send to her friend the call in letter, passport, power of attorney, a filled out EMS label (for the return of passport to Shanghai which is an eligible city), and a little cash for postage... Then her friend can take the passport in to the consulate?

 

Anything I missed?

 

 

Yes - you need to make sure she'll be allowed to do this - perhaps PM screamneagle to find out if there was anything unusual about his case.

 

The Wang's know the ins and outs of this sort of thing.

[HongKong2LA]

Congratulations!!!

[screamneagle]

I am amazed they gave you a call in letter rather than a blue slip. I thought when a document is needed you have to send it in and then WAIT 3-6 weeks for a call in letter. This seems new to me and would be unusually intelligent for them to start doing this.

The power of attorney thing with Mr. Wang is a great idea! I guess that's what you have to do to get a passport down there and mailed back? Pay someone to be your agent?

 

I do not know if this had anything to do with it but the instruction sheet my lady received in her P4 packet listed somewhere close to 15 documents that it said, "Bring to the interview". We had every one of the documents listed plus duplicates, all the passport photos and everything else we thought we needed to be successful at the interview. Nowhere in the documentation that was sent by the consulate was there any mention of a notarized un married statement for a female child over the age of 20 years. It was clearly stated on my initial I-129F and all the P3 documents that there was a child almost 20 years old that needed a K-2 to accompany her mother to the US. Again ... no mention of the need for a notarized un married statement.

 

When the actual interview was just about completed, the VO asked my lady's daughter how old she was. She replied that she was 20 years old and that is when the notarized un married statement was asked for. My lady had her P4 packet with her and showed the VO that this was NOT one of the documents or pieces of evidence listed to bring to the interview. She was told that the consulate would not issue the visas without the notarized un married statement. My lady then asked if we could obtain this document in Guangzhou. She was told that it must originate from the daughter's home town of Chengdu. Well that was 2 and a half hours away by air so it wasn't going to happen on the day of the interview.

 

When we got back to the Tian Yi apartments, the Yang's ask how the interview went. We explained what had happened and they offered to take the document to the consulate for us after we sent it to them. Mr. Yang's wife wrote out what needed to be included in the language for the power of attorney document. It was in Chinese so I didn't understand it. We arranged to have the document made immediately upon our returned to Chengdu and have it sent via EMS along with both passports to the Yang's. The consulate would mail the visas to the Yang's and they would forward them on to my lady in Chengdu via EMS. This is exactly how it all went down. The fee the Yang's charge for just forwarding the visas is 300 RMB. If you need them as the power of attorney, the fee is 1000 RMB. Hope this helps clarify the situation. I guess we were lucky in any event. I am just grateful that this phase of the process is over.